July 18/04 7:43 am - TransAlp Challenge: Stage 1

Posted by Editoress on 07/18/04

7th TransAlp Challenge

Stage 1 started with a tight battle: Bart Brentjens of team T-Mobile last year's winner in theMen category - who rides this year with his fellow countryman Gerben De Knegt, and Mannie Heymans , who teamed up with Karl Platt (Ger) with whom he just recently won the Cape Epic both former TransAlp winnere, decided today's stage in a sprint finish.

Heymanns/ Platt (Focus Rocky Mountain) were in the lead for a long time when they took a wrong turn on the last downhill. "We weren't really sure if the sign was pointing onto the gravel road or to the single trail right next to it", Karl remembers. "Since we rode so much on single track today, we decided to take the single trail. When it led us back to the gravel road, we know that decision was wrong! We must have lost about 40 seconds there."

The best team in the Masters category was the austrian power pack Martin Hornegger and Adi Harrer finishing with 3:39 in front of Walter Platzgummer and Hansi Grasegger. Previous year winners Lesley Tomlinson and Gretchen Reeves confirmed their ambitions to win and triumphed ahead over the german riders Kathrin Schwing and Regina Marunde. Martina Deubler and Markus Stock won the Mixed category in a great fight against Anna Baylis and Jorg Scheiderbauer.